Chris Fromage

As the title says it: What is the saddest game you ever played? What game made you cry or made you sad? Last week, I played 'To the moon', and I have to say that I had a hard time not to cry. The gameplay and/or graphics might not be what we are used to, but a story like that has not been seen that much anymore...

Vote on your saddest game and tell me why

(The list above are the games with the saddest moments/stories according to several sites. I didn't play most of them by myself, but I would if they get enough votes.)

EDIT: Poll has been deleted. For the people who were interested: The walking death had the most votes, followed by Red Dead redemtion

AceRay

Silent Hill 2. Whenever I even think of those opening lines, I start to tear up. By the end, I was curled up in a ball, crying my eyes out. Dammit James, just dammit.

Spec Ops: The Line also had me crying A LOT, especially during "that scene" (you know the one if you've played it), its really the moment the game changes from a normal shooter into a complete deconstruction of the genre and psychological examination, basically examining who YOU are and why YOU play games. It probably changed the way I view my life. The ending also pretty much destroys a lot of the time.

Typhus

When you find out that Solidus is the hero of Metal Gear Solid 2 and you have to kill him anyway, that moment always gets to me, it still does.In fact, it so impacted me as a gamer, that when I saw how his character was brushed under the carpet in MGS4, I swore never to buy or even play the game. A promise I have kept to this day.

Adler

When you find out that Solidus is the hero of Metal Gear Solid 2 and you have to kill him anyway, that moment always gets to me, it still does.In fact, it so impacted me as a gamer, that when I saw how his character was brushed under the carpet in MGS4, I swore never to buy or even play the game. A promise I have kept to this day.

Is it that much of a problem though? Solidus' time passed, and so did everyone else's in MGS4. Even if his character isn't a main story element in MGS4, it's worth exploring Solid/Old Snake's character as he will be robbed of his time the same as Solidus was.

Let's not forget that Solidus' good attributes were still impressed on Raiden at the end of MGS2, and he learned from Solidus from that time, as well as Armstrong in Revengeance. It's not a complete loss that Solidus is barely mentioned anymore, since his spirit was basically revived in the form of Armstrong, even if he's a tad bit more loony.

I still regard Solidus as an anti-villain rather than a hero. Remember when he forced the Small Boy Unit, Raiden included, to consume gunpowder in order to make them more easily controllable? Remember him callously shooting Olga even when completely aware that she was aiding Raiden to keep her child alive? He would kill Raiden just to find a trace of the Patriots in his nanomachines in his desire to destroy them. In the end, he did no more than the role that the Patriots assigned him in MGS2.

This is the only game I'll ever consider to be completely and utterly perfect, there are no flaws in this game and the ending is the digital embodiment of perfection. Prior to this videogame, I had never been so immersed that I dropped my controller, put my head in my hands and uncontrollably starting crying, the inevitability of the game's ending was brilliant. Each time I play it I know that it won't end any other way no matter how hard try to keep pushing forward but each time I feel compelled to do so, each time I fail and each time the game wins.

When this videogame came out it taught me two things, the first is that video games can be considered an art form and that it is possible for a game to be perfect in every way. The game, despite its rather dated graphics still looks better than any other game on the the market, the design for the gameworld is perfect, and Team Ico have clearly put an unthinkable amount of time into thinking about how the game works and why it works the way it does. The game is always going to be the same bittersweet experience and it knows you want to change that, it fools you each time into thinking that you can change your fate, the game hides secret places, locations and items that each time you discover a new one you believe that the game will finally give you your cake and let you eat it too.

It never does. A perfect example of this is the fruits that you can find by climbing certain trees in the game or shooting them down with your bow, the moment you eat them you're given a small health boost, if you find all of these fruits in five straight playthrough a single extra bird will appear in the starting area of the game (it doesn't notify you of any of this though) and if you manage to perfectly balance the bird's height and your stamina you'll be able to reach the top of the great tower (the only real structure in the game). I should also remember to mention that in order for this bird to appear you'll need to ride each bird in the game to their specific locations, with a new one appearing up until the fifth playthrough.

However when this one appears and takes you to the top of the great tower you're gifted with a view few players have heard of and even fewer have seen, an astonishingly beautiful garden with a magnificent, gigantic tree located right in the center of it and on one of its branches lies a very special fruit, shoot it down and eat it and something will happen that is symbolic of every part of the game. You take damage for eating it, something you work so hard to achieve, that requires hundreds of hours of work, great perception and unwavering trust that the game will finally give you something to repay you for having to go through that ending five times. It hurts you, in turn for you exploring it and learning about it, it gives you its love and you kill all of it, every living thing inside of it to bring to life something from the outside.

The ending of the game, much like the game itself is absolute perfection.

Typhus

I still regard Solidus as an anti-villain rather than a hero. Remember when he forced the Small Boy Unit, Raiden included, to consume gunpowder in order to make them more easily controllable? Remember him callously shooting Olga even when completely aware that she was aiding Raiden to keep her child alive? He would kill Raiden just to find a trace of the Patriots in his nanomachines in his desire to destroy them. In the end, he did no more than the role that the Patriots assigned him in MGS2.

I can look past all he did, because unlike either his brothers or his father, Solidus cared about people.Snake doesn't, Snake is an apathetic man who goes where he's told, does what he's told and then has the gall to get offended when people use him like the tool he's allowed himself to be.Liquid was a two dimensional misanthrope, given too much credibility by fans because of how awesome MGS was back in 1998.And Big Boss? Well, Big Boss wanted to plunge the world into perpetual warfare because his girlfriend died. He was a crybaby and all his plans eventually boiled down to a giant revenge scheme because a single woman died. For her sake, he would happily ruin the lives of millions of people and murdered countless children out of pure vindictiveness.

Only Solidus gave a sh*t about other people, only Solidus was what I would class as heroic or possessing noble ideals. What he did in the past is of little consequence when you consider the man he chose to become. He was the favored son of the Patriots, given comfort and power and a life of luxury. Solidus was handed every opportunity and yet he traded it all in, he basically sacrificed his entire life to the pursuit of liberty and freeing his people.Even his other objective, of being remembered by history, is a truly understandable and sympathetic goal in my eyes.

And how is his character rewarded? Does anyone give a sh*t? Does his father, in his quaint little deathbed confession, even give him the time of day? Nope. Just forgotten. Whilst Snake gets the big teary send-off, Big Boss glosses over a lifetime of evil and Liquid is kinda-sorta the main villain.Solidus was the noblest of all the characters, the most heroic in my eyes and just got the short end of the stick at the end of it all.

If they put a child version of him in The Phantom Pain, I think I'd probably buy it. I mean, they're obviously including Liquid, so why not go for all the brothers?